Oak Island Mysteries
by Dr. Lostrunn
Summary: Jackson Lostrunn must stop his father's killer and adventure into the caverns inside Oak Island to uncover the secrets hidden within.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

"Tell me now!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" my father cried.

"Don't give me that crap. You've been a guardian of it for near a decade now." The gun clicked.

"Dad, what's he talking about?"

"I don't know, son," my father replied never taking his eyes off the man with the gun still pointed at his head.

"Don't shoot that bullshit. You know damn well what and where it is"

As the moon crept over the rooftops of the brick sided buildings creating the ally my father and I were trapped in I got my first glimpse of the dark clad man with the gun's face. He was truly much younger than I imagined; maybe only mid 20s instead of the high 30s that I had thought. The beaklike nose that protruded from the middle of his face looked like it had been broken more than its fair share of times. His contorted mouth twisted into a crooked snarl as if he'd just eaten something horribly rotten. But most of all his eyes, his green, demon-like eyes that could easily pierce an unknowing soul with a single glance that currently stared straight into my father's aging face.

I tried to remember why and how we got there.

I recall that my father and I had been out to a movie that he had promised to take me to a few weeks prior until he got an urgent call from his office saying that they needed him as soon as possible. My hereditary stubbornness made it difficult for my father to convince me to leave, but finally I had to give in and we left the theater and started down the nighttime street. It was then, after about five minutes of fast-paced walking that my father noticed that we were being slyly followed. Then the man pulled out a jet-black gun that gleamed in the pale moonlight and told us to get into the ally coming up on our right and, seeing no other alternative, we obliged. I remember I wasn't too happy about missing the movie and I was scared out of my mind of the man with the gun so my father, being the kind and caring soul that he is, took off his vintage _Indiana Jones_-style fedora and gave it to me to help me remain calm and it somewhat helped.

I now cling to that hat as if my life depended on it.

"Fine," Dark Clad said brutally interrupting my thoughts, "If you won't tell me what I want now then clearly I have chosen the wrong pressure point."

It was then he took his well-polished gun and redirected it at me.

I stared straight up the barrel and imagined the small seemingly bullet lying in wait in the dark chamber. Waiting for Dark Clad to pull the trigger to cause the miniscule explosion that would send that seemingly harmless bullet into my skull and bring my life to a very untimely end. It's kind of funny really that an object so small can cause so much harm to anything.

"I'm sure, Dr. Lostrunn that you would be more than willing to divulge the whereabouts of the book so I can find what I seek for the life of your precious twelve-year-old son. Am I right?" asked Dark Clad as he gave a cruel smirk.

For the first time in a long while, I saw a real and honest look of dread cross my father's aging features. His careful hands tensed. His well-toned muscles contracted. His bulbous nose flared open. His gray/blue eyes, my eyes, widened.

"Alright!" my father pleaded, "Alright! Alright! Alright! I don't know the book's exact location, but–"

"Bullshit!"

"But! I do know the clue that can lead to it."

"Well then, what is it?" Dark Clad demanded.

I turned to face my father and saw that he was kneeling, like I was, on the cold, dark ground. He then began to recite this _clue_ as if he'd practiced it a hundred times over.

"_Find the address to a code._

_Where a tree of riches is beginning to corrode._

_Find it in the knowledge of the world some say._

_Of nations, and powers, and islands far away._"

"If there's one thing I didn't want," Dark Clad said, "It was a goddam riddle. What does it mean?!"

"I don't know," my father replied.

"What do you mean 'I don't know'?"

"I'm only a guardian. I don't know the meaning, merely the phrase."

Dark Clad paused for a moment and put a quite sarcastic questioning look on his young, but scarred, face.

"So then," he said in a playful voice, "You do in fact admit to knowing the mysterious clue and of being a guardian, but you don't know what any of it means. You must merely be a 30th degree."

"Of what?" my father asked.

"Please, don't play coy with me," he waved the gun around as if it were nothing more than a stupid child's toy, "I'm really not in the mood. You are a 30th degree Free Mason you idiot."

My eyes went wide and I stared at my father in absolute bewilderment. For the past three years I had been obsessed with the Free Masons hoping to, one day, join their ranks. And now learning that my own father was one of them, and a 30th degree no less, was astounding. From what I'd learned, my father was almost at the top of the Masons whose ranks only rose to the godly number 33 and that once one got there, all of their secrets were revealed.

"How do you know?" my father asked, for he seemed as astonished as I was.

"It really wasn't that hard seeing as though that necklace you're wearing contains the iconic compass and square enclosing that little 'G'."

I recalled reading in a book on the Free Masons that the "G" in their symbol was identical in meaning to the Hebrew letter "YOD" and that that particular letter was located on the Scottish Right ring and represented deity and the worshiped phallus.

Now as I searched I saw the symbol too. I had many times asked my father what was on that necklace of his seeing as though he always kept it hidden under his shirt, but time and time again he would deny me saying, "When you're older." Apparently that time has now come though not by my father's choosing, but by the selection of Dark Clad who was still threatening to end my beloved life.

"I knew I should have done a better job at hiding that."

"Well doctor, you shouldn't be all that surprised. After all, you don't specialize in hiding objects, you only learn about them long after they're discovered and then teach others about them."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that it wasn't just the blatantly obvious necklace that told me you were of the cult called th–"

"We are not a cult!" my father interrupted.

"A secret society then? Hm?"

"No. Being a secret society actually implies that you don't want anyone knowing about your group or your meeting places. Well now if that was what we wanted to be, we're doing one hell of a crappy job. No, we are not a secret society, but instead a society with secrets."

"Fine then," Dark Clad said, "but even so, it wasn't only the necklace that aided me in determining that you are with the Masons, but also your profession."

"My profession?" my father asked in wonder.

"That is correct. Come now professor, everyone knows what you teach. History, which makes you a nice addition to the Masons. And not only that but also your undying amount of loyalty and trust in your friends."

"How do you know all this about my job and more importantly my friends?"

"You see, that's the exact kind of loyalty that I am referring to. And now to answer your rather stupid question, it is traitors. Yes. Traitors Dr. Lostrunn. Traitors, you see, in this day and age are quite easy to come by. You can't even walk down the street without meeting a traitor of some sort."

"None of my friends would betray me," my father insisted.  
"Oh don't be so sure my dear doctor. Many a friend or colleague can be influenced after being introduced to a certain Mr. Franklin a few times."

"You evil bastard!"

I'd never heard my father swear that badly before so one could imagine my shock when he said that. This only added to the confusion and chaos currently burning white hot within the confines of my head. At this rate I wouldn't be able to handle many more of these strange surprises.

Now I could hear the feint noise of sirens in the distance. Someone must have called the police because of all the commotion going on out here. Not to mention that this was becoming a pretty unsafe part of town. That would mean that this guy would need to finish up real quick which was a bad thing for my father and me because it meant that sooner rather than latter he was going to have to pull that trigger. Now I for one wasn't about to sit by and just let that happen.

My father and Dark Clad were still talking so I, using them as a distraction, hurled myself onto Dark Clad's back.

He bucked and squirmed but he couldn't get me off his back. Eventually though, he grabbed hold of the collar of my shirt and flung me off his back onto the dark, hard bricks that made up the ground.

Now if one was like me in assuming that Dark Clad only had a gun than the both of us would be sadly mistaken. For he, from his pocket, produced a four-inch-long switch blade which shimmered in the bright white of the moon and began to vigorously attempt to slash at me with it while still keeping the gun pointed at my father as to insure that he wouldn't make any unplanned attempt to move or get up.

At first I thought that he had just the worst aim of anyone on the planet until I felt a sharp piercing pain penetrate my body and shoot through my central nervous system into my brain causing me to collapse to the ground. Hard.

Once I was firmly on the pavement with my senses back, I checked the slash mark. It wasn't as bad I had first thought although it was still pretty deep. It ran from bellow my left cheekbone almost to my lip and was now bleeding profusely. I then remembered what I'd learned in school and applied pressure to it.

"Anyways," said Dark Clad, "I thank you for the information, professor."

And then the thing that I had been dreading happened. Dark Clad pulled the trigger.

The repetitive and ungodly bang of the gun as bullet after bullet left the well-polished barrel tore into my innocent father ripped into my eardrums.

I heard the gun click as a signal that no more lead remained inside the magazine.

Nine rounds. That evil menace sent nine freakin' rounds into my kind-hearted father and, as far as I could tell, felt no guilt whatsoever. Right then and there I made up my mind that this "man" was evil to the greatest extent of the word and then some.

I felt a great sting and realized that it came from my new fast-forming salty tears pouring down my face and into my open wound. True sorrow gripped me as I refused to accept the truth, that Dark Clad had just brutally and unfairly murdered my father. A flood of familiar memories returned to my eyes and some I didn't even know I still had. I continued to sob as I crawled towards my father's still bleeding body. I could see the look of surprised terror still upon his permanently frozen face. I took his hand from the ground and held it. I held it as if I could somehow bring him back if I held on long enough. If I hoped long enough. I turned my head and looked with tear blurred eyes at the vile murderer. I felt that he should say something. Anything. But what did Dark Clad do but laugh; he laughed even as he ran from the ally.


	2. Chapter 2

One

Flagstaff, AZ

21 Years later

Jackson Lostrunn awoke with a start. His body still drenched with the cold sweat that had enveloped him last night even though his room, number 509, in the Drury Inn & Suites was cooled to compensate for the usual head of the Arizonian sun.

He checked the room's standard alarm clock, 2:17 am.

He ran his hand through his still damp, thinning dark hair and tried to think. After a while, Lostrunn decided there was no point in trying to go back to sleep so instead he pushed himself off the sheets and trudged over to the room's desk to check his laptop.

It was still on for he had been sending today's lesson and notes to his substitute teacher to preach about back home in Stanford University. The progress bar brightly displayed 100% Completed, and he closed the lid.

Lostrunn opened the curtains and was greeted by the dark shadows that he knew to be the far off Kachina Peaks of Arizona. He sat in a comfortable reclining chair that he had repositioned to face the window's grand view.

He must have dosed off again because when he rechecked the clock it was 8:42 am. Even though the hotel's great breakfast area with buffet style self-service and great staff in the kitchen, he wasn't hungry so instead he decided to look at the photos he'd taken yesterday while venturing around the famous Grand Canyon National Park. Ho powered up his laptop once more and opened the Windows Photo Viewer.

Lostrunn had always wanted to see the Grand Canyon as a little boy and when Stanford offered him an all-expenses paid trip to anywhere in the United States he knew exactly where he wanted to go.

How now stared blankly at the picture currently on the screen. It was a superb vertical shot into the canyon with a greenish yellow banana cactus in the lower left-hand corner at sunset. As he continued to gaze into the image, Lostrunn noted the warm colors of bright orange and rusty red splattered across the canyons ancient walls. The sun's rays cascaded down the cliffs and the sheer drops and intense head reminded tourists that out there they were at the mercy of Mother Nature. However, the Park Rangers that continuously patrolled the rims and trails took pride in helping those who needed it and conversing with and informing those who didn't.

Thinking back now, Lostrunn wondered what the rangers would have said about his little escapade the previous day when he had ventured into the canyon.

He smirked as he let his mind imagine how they would have reacted had they known that he was repelling down and then climbing back up the rocky walls. While remembering the excitement and the adrenalin rush, Lostrunn allowed himself to be thrown into a flashback to the day before.

_Jackson Lostrunn was staring death in the face as he dangled precariously off the cliff near Hermit's Rest. He had experienced situation similar to this one but never one exactly like it where he clung to the rock face by only his right hand. He considered calling out for help but this far from Hermit's Rest no one would hear him. Plus even if they did the only ones who might be able to do something would be the Park Rangers and he had no intention of answering to them about why he was down there. He was also not in the mood to let someone raise all hell on him especially if it were a woman as he recalled Shakespeare's famous line, "Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn."_

_His only other option would be to somehow climb his way out which was going to be no easy task._

_He now thanked God for the countless times he traversed through the open doorway to get to Stanford University's climbing wall where he so often joined the ambitious student climbers in ascending the wall and experiencing death defying situations under controlled circumstances even after the continuous friendly taunting and teasing of his fellow faculty._

_Lostrunn was then whipped back to reality when a strong gust of wind shook his well-toned body. Then, summoning all the strength he could muster, Lostrunn flung himself up and tried to grab hold of a rock jutting out from the cliff face. The rock must have been loose and his hand sweatier than he had previously thought for just as he started to put his weight on it, the rock snapped and tumbled down the canyon._

_He then stared back at his opponent and summoning his adrenalin and strength one again he hurled himself up and grabbed hold of another rock. It jostled around slightly in its niche, but held as Lostrunn placed his full weight upon it._

_As he hauled himself up and over the cliff edge and back onto solid ground, Lostrunn took off his backpack and fished out his water thermos to quench his burning thirst._

_He noticed a small rock outcropping where shade was present and lumbered over to it. As he sat and harvested the shade in silence, for there was no one to talk to but himself, and gulped down his deliciously cold water, he adjusted his _Indiana Jones_-style fedora on his sweaty head._

_After he was freshly watered, Lostrunn refilled his pack with all the assortments of objects he had used for repelling and climbing. Then, after being sure that it was all there, he swung his pack onto his shoulders and began the long trek back to the shuttle boarding area. Once there he would take the blue line shuttle bus back to his rented Jeep Rubicon parked near the stone visitor center._

_Along the way he spotted several small lizards spying on him from under and sometimes on top of their thin rocky homes. He also had to be weary of the occasional cactus that would sneak up and jab him in the leg._

_H could now see the shuttle loading area. He began walking towards it as the sun gleamed across the sk-_

Lostrunn's hotel room phone rang. Picked up the receiver and answered, "This is Lostrunn."

"Mr. Lostrunn? Good morning, sir. You have some mail down here with a return address to Harvard University," said the desk clerk.

_No doubt it's Stephanie trying to suck up for more extra credit even when I'm on vacation; _Jackson thought to himself, _not like she actually needs it_. Lostrunn rolled his eyes and smiled.

"Mr. Lostrunn?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, yes?"

"I asked if you wanted me to bring it up for you."

"Um, sure. Thanks."

Stephanie Persimmons had been Lostrunn's best student for all four years that she had attended Harvard. Always acing quizzes and tests and then asking for extra credit even though she knew full well that she had 100% in his class. He supposed that she planned to become a professor of archeology herself because as he remembered, she became his best student her first day.

Lostrunn had never married and he prided himself with that, however he had to admit that Stephanie had a few qualities that some might find attractive. With her long, auburn hair; her soft, kind green eyes; and her tall slender figure with light, but always slightly tan skin; she had the makings of a woman of beauty and power.

There was a soft nock on the door. Lostrunn stood and padded his way across the floor to it. He checked the peep hole even though he knew who it was. Force of habit he supposed.

He unlatched the door and let the clerk in.

"Here you are, Mr. Lostrunn."

"Thank you very much," replied Lostrunn as he accepted the envelope.

"You have a great day."

"You too. Thanks."

The clerk gave a curt nod and then turned and strolled down the hallway back to the elevator. Lostrunn closed the door. He walked across the room and sat at the desk where his laptop still displayed his best picture of the Grand Canyon from the day before. Then, from his toiletries bag, Lostrunn produced his Swiss Army Knife and flipped out the blade. He then slid the paper-thin knife under the envelope flap and cut it along the top.

As he finished he took out the short letter that the envelope contained. He unfolded the paper and read:

_Dear Professor Lostrunn,_

_I am writing to you to inform you that the assignment of yesterday, May 17, was very well constituted and a challenge for many of the students. Many of them complained that the questions weren't descriptive enough, but I for one thought that they were perfect in every way._

_On another note, I have heard wind of a dig going on in a place called Oak Island in Canada. I just thought you might wish to know._

_ ~ Sincerely, _

_ Stephanie_

_P.S. Your substitute teacher isn't as good as you and I miss your teaching._

Lostrunn smiled as he finished reading. That was Stephanie for you, always making you smile.

He then decided that it was prudent to get out to go hiking around and, even though it was prohibited, in Sunset Crater Volcano before the day got too hot.

After a quick breakfast of toast, eggs, sausage, bacon, and some orange juice, Lostrunn pack up his gear and headed for his Jeep.


End file.
